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Monday, August 8, 2016

The sirens could be heard now. Approaching closer and closer by the second. It sounded like to Eve to be three cars coming in their direction. As she sat and listened to the sounds grow louder she drifted off in her thoughts. She wished for this nightmare to be over.

She could not help but feel responsible for what was happening. She had had her own suspicions. Why oh why, she wondered to herself, did she not insist on answers from Copelands' headquarters. Why did she not demand they hire a security guard for night patrol or at the very least ask for backup staff help when she first felt things were not quite right. Why did she not act on her own tuition. She had let fear- her fear, control her. That was her first mistake she thought to her self. She had fled for her own safety. She had not acted responsible- In the way she should have, and that bothered her deeply. She did not put the safety of her staff and study participants first. Now because of her failure to control the situation, lives had been lost. Everything was so out of control. Eve fought hard to stop the tears that were beginning to form in the corner of her tired eyes. Her heart ached for the people that had been hurt by this terrifying ordeal.

When Eve had first accepted the position it had seemed like she had just landed her dream job. She would finally be running her own research site. All the years of slaving away in poorly ran labs working on weekends and Holidays and bureaucratic brown nosing, she thought, had paid off. She was finally being accepted and taken seriously in the science field. Working for Copeland a leader in the pharmaceutical industry was the icing on the cake. As an employee for Copeland she thought, would certainly open new doors and might possibly put her on the cooperate latter in years to come. But some how now she was beginning to see another side to all of this. Copeland may have used her. Used her to run a warehouse to test new drugs on innocent people. Not a state of the art research center like they proclaimed in the beginning. Possibly used her to lure and set the bait to attract volunteers. It made sense- Why had she not seen it earlier. All her study participants were young street people. They came from backgrounds with no history of immediate families. Most had been starry eyed young adults found on the street or going form temp job to temp job looking for work. Her center offered them a safe place to stay. A bed and three hot meals and cash for their consent to be part of a drug study to help science find new treatments to cure cancer. It all seemed to be running smoothly intill a month ago. When her staff began noticing a change in some lab results.

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Eve's head throbbed. She put her hand up to the swollen wound on her head. With the tips of her fingers she could feel that her eyebrow had increased in size. But that hardly seemed to be anything compared to what she had witnessed just beyond the outer walls of the research center. The images of the scene inside the building earlier flashed through her mind. Some how as crazy as it seemed humans were turning into rabid animals. Her humans. The people who worked and volunteered to be part of the study that she was responsible for. The whole chain of events just did not make any sense to her. If she had not seen it with her own eyes she would not have believed it. But she had seen it, with her very own eyes. Humans taking bites of other humans. Eve shook her head as the image again flashed before her. It was the reality that scared her now. This was no dream. She really had seen a man and a woman in the courtyard earlier. Bent over a body, a human body, bloody and growling. They had turned when they heard Eve and the other three approaching. The couple had began walking towards her, Cody, Josiah and Doc. They walked as though they were unaware of their own condition. Walking as if in a drugged state. Dazed and unfocused. Unable to respond or understand anything that had been spoken to them. Not once acknowledging the warning Josiah had yelled out to them, before he fired the shots. They moved as though with only one intent -to attack. But why,- how? How could a body move when the the mind appeared to be gone. How could civil decent humans do such grotesque things. How could ordinary people turn into flesh eating monsters?

In her heart she knew it had to be the new infusion lines that had caused things to change within the studies enrol lees. She had read the lab reports. She had seen all the documentations from her staff, that clearly left her and her staff with a growing concern, two weeks prior. She was certain the new drug that had been introduced into the study was the catalyst for all the marked changes, yes, that much she was sure of.

She turned and asked Marie how she was holding up. Marie responded with a slight nod. " I am okay" she answered. As the first car turned into the court yard Eve stood up and as the men stepped out she began to approach the vehicle. Right behind it rolled in an ambulance and another patrol car.
She knew she had to accept some of the blame but what mattered right now was stopping whatever all this was.

"Whats going on" said the first officer, "who is in charge here". Eve quickly told the uniformed men that she was the one in charge and there were still people with in the compound. Shots had been fired earlier and there were casualties inside and out around the back. Just as she finished her last sentence another shot was heard from inside.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Eve Took Marie out side to sit down like Josiah had instructed. She needed to calm herself too. She wanted to believe, needed to believe that even if just for the for the moment, Josiah and Cody had everything under control. Cody and Josiah had both given her a sense of security she had not felt since she had taken this job. She felt safe with them.

. She looked around the courtyard. Afraid, and desperate;y hoping she would not see anything or anyone that would be a threat. It made no sense to Eve the things that were happening. This was all crazy and inside she wished it would somehow be some terrifying dream. She wanted to be awaken from this horrifying nightmare. She knew there were "things" within the study that were kept under close watch by the board of directors at Copelands main office. Things that even she was not privy too. She had suspected there was somethings not quite right, two weeks ago, when a one of the young male participants and an orderly had suddenly vanished in the night without any word as to what happened. When she had questioned her staff the next day know one seemed to know anything regarding the release of either. The file of the study participant had simply been stamped withdrawn consent, case closed. The orderly's dismissal papers turned up the next day on her desk and that was it. No further contact. The disappearance of the two men had bothered her deeply. The board of directors had given her some lame excuse that the study enrollee had changed his mind in the night. He had contacted headquarters to be released. As for William her night orderly, he had some sort of emergency and had needed to take a leave of absence effective immediately. There were just to many details kept secret -And that was what scared Eve the most. The unknown. Which was now exploding into her hands.

Eve recalled the conversation she had a few days prior with headquarters. They had been very insistent that she handle things quietly and effectively. If there were any unusual disturbances as they called it, any occurances that might be questionable, were to go directly through the head office. First, before any actions outside the compound be taken, she was informed for strict security reasons, under no conditions, should the law authorities or the press be contacted, without Copelands headquarters being alerted first.

Her hands trembled as a memory flashed through her mind. A flashback of the day earlier when she had placed a call to one of the administrators at Copeland's main office. she had told them one of her staff was having a difficult time with one the first enrollees into the study. He seemed to be having sever side effects to one of new drugs they were administering. At her superiors request she was asked to asses his condition herself and that was when she was attacked. The next thing she remembered was that she had found her way to Codys ranch.

Marie was shaken and in shock. Eve tried to comfort the woman. They sat in silence with their arms linked around each other as the sound of some sort of emergency vehicles siren could be heard in the distant approaching in their direction. Both woman turned toward the noise.